How is this good for cats and kittens? If the kittens survive, they end up growing up into cats that are feral, often starving and very cold in winter because they don’t have homes to go to. A controlled and cared for cat population is infinitely more desirable than an large uncontrolled population comprised mostly of animals that will suffer a lot before early death.

come to think of it, there’s so many things global warming will be good for if only you have the *right* perspective, eg: once the pole caps have molten and the sea levels have risen there will be so much more room for our cute friends the dolphins to frolick about and so much less coastline they can accidently get beached on! now, don’t you feel better?

OK, followed the link, read the snippet on Treehugger (note that this is a news site with a distinct PRO-ENVIRONMENT slant). Here’s a quote:
“We’ve been racking our brains to figure out why we’re seeing more cats in January and February,” says Lee Oliver, spokesperson for the Toronto Humane Society. “Now we realize the spike in kittens and strays is because of the weather.”

I have to join the few commenters noting this is in bad taste. I normally haven’t had any issues with the “hot topics” in comment debates on the site (only snickering at the people who get their knickers in a twist over small things). I do also understand that this was meant to be a joke (or so I hope). I volunteer in an animal shelter here in Finland and also offer a foster home for some of the cats. This just really hit a nerve.

I love seeing cute kittens. Unfortunately, I see too many of them as a volunteer with a cat rescue organization (Rescue House in the San Diego area). I hope to goodness that global warming won’t cause more kittens, because we’re overrun with them as it is between April and October every year.

…
I thought it was a bit extreme when some people would get on a spay/neuter soapbox when pictures of kittens or puppies are posted here, but whether in jest or sarcasam, your post about it being good news that global warming (which sucks as it is) is promoting cats to have more kittens…now I think you are the one with the problem. Cute baby animals on this site are wonderful, but not at the expense of possibly being euthanized. I think someone is on too high of a dose of lithium to think this was a suitable post, though I am 98% sure that the moderator might have been saying this in jest, it’s still not kosher. I’m posting the sites for places that assist in spaying/neutering services, I would encourage others to post them in their blogs/comments/messageboards.

I have to say that this is the very first time ever (and I’ve been coming here practically since the beginning) that I’ve had a problem with a post. I’m all about the “Meg’s blog = Meg posts what she wants”.

However, while it may be newsworthy and important, in that it should point out the need for spaying and neutering, perhaps it could have been presented differently.

Well, that’s absolutely appalling. It’s not cute when unwanted kittens are born. It’s not cute when they stretch the resources of animal shelters beyond their limits. It’s not cute when those kittens have to be euthanised. It’s not cute when those kittens grow up feral and produce more and more feral kittens. What were you thinking, posting this as though it were a good thing?

Hmmm…while I certainly believe in spaying and neutering your pets (mine both are, and they are indoor only because I live in the city), I’m a little taken aback by the comments left here.

The automatic assumption that Meg ACTUALLY THINKS this is ‘good’. Having brain farts people?

See, I have viewed it as bringing something to our attention (global warming causing felines to start their mating season earlier due to mild temperatures…and it’s probably happening in the wild as well, the concept that responsible pet owners should get their pets fixed, keep em indoors, etc, etc) with a touch of the typical humour that’s plastered all over this blog.

So by all means, get your knickers in knots, but NOT at Meg’s humour. Try at OURSELVES for being the root cause of the Global Warming which is messing with the mating instinct of animals domestic and wild, at those who refuse to spay/neuter their animals and let them run around and ‘get it on’. And then DO SOMETHING if you haven’t started already.

It’s only fair to add that I really do love this blog. I guess if I can comment when I’m miffed about something, I should also bother to comment about the positives. This is the first time a CO post has failed to bring a smile to my face. :)

I for one refuse to get my knickers or any other article of clothing in a twist over what someone posts on a humor blog. Was Meg using irony, perhaps she was making quotation marks with her hands in the air when saying “good”? Or, perhaps she is revealing the first phases of her diabolic plan to take over the world with an army of rabid feral kittens (if their claws don’t get you their cuteness will!)? Only time will tell, but I will be the first to welcome our heat-induced cute overlords.

Ok, in the time it took me to type up my musings on Meg’s evil plans, she already posted a commend backpedaling on her plans to rule the world with an army of rabid kittens. That can only mean one thing. Meg & a kitten to be named later will be declaring their candidacy for the ’08 elections any time now… either that or my spelling is so bad it just takes me too long to hunt and peck these random ramblings out… Either way, I vote for Kitties!

I for one am glad Meg posted the article. Irony or no. It brings a potentially sad situation to light and if it bugs all the ’nuffs so much, may I suggest a) being a foster parent (like Theo) or b) doing something to help the situation besides harshing our cute.

I live in Toronto and one of the charities I donate to helps to look after feral cats. Sometimes I help feed feral colonies and it breaks my heart to see these poor cats outside. I just hope that my cash will help at least some cats. I found out about this charity from CO and maybe someone will read the article posted on CO and it will prompt them to try and find a way to help these cats the way that previous cute overload comments made me aware of the state of animal welfare in Toronto and now you must excuse me so I can go and hug my own cat so I am not so sad about the feral cats.

On a more serious note, I do agree with Suzanne whole heartedly on the fostering/adopting route. Both of our cats and our beloved Corgi were rescued from situations where they were unwanted. While they may have had their challenges over a shiny ‘new’ puppy or kitten (Nairobi was feral, ‘Bup rescued from a kitty mill and Bastian had seizures) knowing that we saved them from the needle or a hard life on the streets is worth the extra bit of work we may have had to put into them well worth it. So everybody, hug a kitteh today!

As the adopted sister of a formerly feral furball, I have to join in on the “aww, poor kitties” side. I LOF kitties and would gladly take in as many cuddy widdle kittems as I could stack floor-to-ceiling in my home … but unfortch, I cannot take em all.

A lot of you are being way too uptight and serious. As an operator of CO I highly doubt Meg likes seeing the plight of homeless animals. Probably shouldn’t try to take things in the worst way possible.

Global warming is blown way out of proportion. The earth has been periodically warming and cooling since the dawn of it’s creation and they’re finding more and more that global warming is not a true threat or problem. What is a problem is people letting their cats roam about as they please and not spaying/neutering. >:(

Aww, thanks, Lauri!
Friends of mine saw the story in the Star (I’m in Toronto) and went right down to the Humane Society to adopt one of these wee kittens as a companion for their overweight cat. But they found no small kittens at all! Turns out the Humane Society was keeping them all “in the back” to try and move some older kittens from the fall, giving them a chance before all the cutest wee ones were snapped up first.

The article does make a really good point that with the milder temps in winter, we’ll have more stray cat breeding. So, people— let’s promise to: volunteer, get our friends to volunteer, give donations to shelters, spread the word about spaying/neutering, foster some strays, etc.

Together we can make a difference for animals. P.S. Don’t forget to look up info on the Seal Hunt!! AHhh! It’s awful – send an email to the prime minister of Canada (WWW. hsus.org)

Laurie C., the rescue group I volunteer with ends up taking in many of the adult cats that don’t get adopted by the other shelters and are slated to be put down. We work like mad prior to “kitten season” to get them homes. We keep them until they’re adopted…period. But I dread kitten season every year because (1) I see that people still aren’t spaying and neutering and (2) the rate of adoption among our adult cats slows considerably. And many our kittens come with sad stories…they’ve been thrown out of cars, dumped at a shopping center at two weeks of age with their mama, taken from a crack house, etc. It’s a heartbreak every year.

I’m in Toronto as well, and donate what I can when I can to the Humane Society. (I’m not allowed to volunteer…hubby’s rule, he’s terrified that since I freak out when one of my babies sneezes that I’ll break when one of the babies at the shelter heads off to the Rainbow Bridge)

What I don’t grasp is permitting your cat to wander around outside in Toronto or any other city. Not that long ago, some freak was leaving poisoned bits of hot dogs littered around dog parks. And there was another story of someone killing cats. There’s cars and nasty people and icky things in alleys and garbage cans. To me, part of responsible pet ownership is keeping your kitteh indoors or allowing them outside like my mother does, supervised and on a lead. I just don’t understand these people who don’t get their cat fixed and then let them roam around outside.

And I’d adopt an adult cat (my hubby is limiting me to two babies right now, it’s what we can afford, so adoption is a down the road thing). Kittehs are delectable at any age to me. :)

For those of us with limited leisure time to cruise the net – this post brought the news item to my attention in a way that went straight to my heartstrings. Meg, as a blogger, is not restricted to politically correct posts; this is her site, she posts what she wants. I approve wholeheartedly, and thankee, Meggers, for opening this bag of kits for all to see.

Good post, Izzy!
Meg = thanks for bringing this to our attention. My dog Lucy and cat Yitzy are both shelter adoptees. I wouldn’t get a pet anyplace else. I harbor a not so secret desire to become a kitteh foster Mom when I get to retire from my job that pays the bills. Armed with this info today, I will be giving some tzedakah (charity) to the county animal shelter again. Good reminder/ awareness jogging.
Yitzysmommie, who ADORES kittens.

All my kittehs are spayed/neutered (as I say for the boyz, de-bobbled). Handsome Stranger (from under the Dumpster(tm)) is going for his de-bobbling on Thursday morning. Bwai and Gril were spayed at the Toronto Humane Society.

The THS, by the way, is a low-kill shelter — while this is laudable in many cases, animals with real health or behaviour problems are up for adoption. Claims of mismanagement resulted in the loss of the animal services contract with the city. And the shelter seems to be run by the board of directors instead of by managers and supervisors. AFAIK, the shelter no longer performs spay/neuter operations. Labour strife decreases the quality of service provided. But they do take in ANY animal, and do do their best to adopt out to good homes (on the adoption form, for example, you have to promise to microchip, NOT declaw, spay/neuter, and keep indoors).

My latest two were foundlings, but that’s just because I was in the right place at the right time; otherwise, I’d have gone to THS for a new baby… /rant

I have two sweet kitties, both of them adopted from shelters. The first was 5-6 months old and found living as a stray. After three fun years with him, we decided to get him a kitty sister. She was 10 months old and had been found living in a cemetery–in Massachusetts in January! :( She was so skinny, but she has since filled out and they’ve bonded and have lots of anerable kitty snuggles.

I adore my kittehs. Last year I got so SAD that Bellow, our boy, had been with us for so long but his little kitty feet hadn’t touched grass or dirt in years. He loves to sit in our open windows and call to the birdies, so my husband and I did the most reasonable thing we could think of: we got him a leash and a harness and started taking him on walks in our suburban town.

Walking a cat is no easy feat, and it takes them a while to get used to it, but by the end of the fall, Bellow was walking well on the leash, leading us. Kitty walks don’t usually go far–a block or two–but can be incredibly sweet. Bellow once chased a butterfly in our driveway, and by late fall the moths were out and he ran across yards (me in tow) to pounce them in the grass. We even took him out in November during the first snowfall. So cuuute! It’s finally warming up in Mass. again, so yesterday we took Bellow and his new sister, Iris, on a walk. Iris is still very hesitant and didn’t even make it out of the driveway, but we will keep trying and see if she likes it.

Anyway, long story short, all I’m saying is there is a way to let your kitties go outside while still remaining “indoor” cats. There are a few sweet kitties in our neighborhood that I see outside a lot, but I’m just not comfortable with letting my cats run around unsupervised. Kitty walks! Come on, people, let’s start a trend!

Constance, I’m sorry. Teho was probably right and you were being ironic. I sometimes forget I’m on CO and not spying on right-wing blog comments to see what the other half thinks. There are plenty of people who say what you said with dead seriousness, which is disconcerting.

While we are in a warming period, two or three years do not constitute a trend of more kittens, ‘global warming’ is probably not the culprit.

I personally don’t think that we are the cause of the ups and downs in climate, they’re kind of traditional, been going on for millions of years. Check out the Mars ices caps, which are also receding, and I don’t think we did that.

The more likely culprit, what we DO have control over is the overpopulation of our pets and those that get badly treated by irresponsible owners: “Ohh how Cute – a kitten! Oh NO, now it’s a CAT…put it out it can take care of itself;” or “Neutering, I don’t believe in it”
Hopefully Ms. Meg’s posting this here won’t be just preaching to the choir, education is key.

All mine are shelter kittehs and my 7 yr old Great Dane is a rescue from a breeding farm.

To answer your question though, yes. I am a scientist. I’ve spent A LOT of time looking at global warming.

Where as my reply was written (EXTREMELY) tounge and cheek (theo was certainly correct), I should point out as many others after me that we’re not really experiencing “global warming” …well we are, but it happens in cycles, so while the globe is “warming” it’s certainly not the catastrophic problem that some peopole seem to want to make it out to be. Infact, the united states is experiencing some of the worst winters in history. Most (if not all) of the people who have studied the patterns of global warming and cooling will tell you the same thing.

I think obama’s a pretty good candidate for ’08 as well, for the record.

Thanks Constance. I hang out with many geologists at my workplace, and indeed, it is important to put things in context, as the Earth’s climate has been changing all along. I worry most about the species that can no longer adapt because of the changes we humans have made to the environment. And I think the pace of the warming is what worries scientists more than the actual temperature changes predicted, at least in terms of species being able to adapt.

I encourage people who are not so sure about global warming to take a look a the latest research. Someone mentioned cold winters– that is actually a sign and symptom of global warming. And yes, the climate has its own warming and cooling trends, but we humans have managed to accelerate the current warming trend to an alrming and potentially catastrophic rate. From the naysayers’ posts its pretty clear to me that they are repeating pat answers that they heard from someone else.

Ogopogo — well, OK, but I don’t get that from your sentence structure: “As an operator of CO I highly doubt Meg likes seeing the plight of homeless animals.”

If you’d put it like this instead…
“I highly doubt that Meg, founder and Fearless Leader of Cute Overload, enjoys seeing the plight of homeless animals.”
…it still ain’t perfect, but at least it doesn’t make me think you’re trying to impersonate a CO site moderator. Heh.

Anyway, this is a style quibble; I agree with the substance of your comment.

oaklandcat is right. “Climate change” is a better word, since people tend to think that “global warming” means every place will just get a little warmer. Ocean currents and changes in primary weather patterns may indeed cause changes that do not fall into this simplistic view. A few years of heavy snowfall is not a “trend.”

constance, actually i can have it both ways– another angela expressed it very well that its more about climate change. Some places will warm up and have milder winters, and other places will enter into a mini ice age. Wild, unusual weather, hot or cold, is the hallmark of global warming. (Hurricane Katrina, anyone)?
Anyhoo I don’t mean to be a nuff– I sure hope you’re right, Constance, that we are just in a natural climactic upswing– but it’s still going to cause mucho problems that we can attempt to mitigate.

Oooh, controversy. I was just thinking today as I rubbed my furry kitty’s (spayed) belly that I wish I had enough time (and space!) to foster kittens.

And Now seeing “gobal warming is fake” reminds me of this one political group that’s popped up in my area. They both insult Bush (very harshly, and not in an intelligent manner) and say global warming is a myth. Then they illegally put up tables in front of stores, where they insult the majority of the locals one way or another with their huge signs. It’s become rather a sore spot for me, dumbing down politics with auto-mudslinging every which way.

If R. Moore throws pudding at them (and seriously…I’m now triple dog daring for the pudding throwing), then pictures and/or video must be taken and shared so that we all may laugh when this crazy political group’s uppance comes.

Heh heh, they WERE outside a grocery store the other day… Now I’m passing the dare onto someone else–I’ll film! I’ve been trying to concoct a not-likely-to-get-me-punched/arrested quip for them. You know, like when people trade ideas on scaring off telemarketers? (I knew one person who, when a telemarketer called at dinner, would start to cry and say, “Didn’t you hear, they’re DEAD!”)

R. Moore, I know exactly the group of which you speak. I had to physically restrain my 88-year-old father when he spotted these people with their table set up outside his favorite market recently. I think he would have hurt them.
Dad likes W, but he is also worried about climate change/global warming; Dad’s an enigma.

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